Formula One: Dumb and dumber

Formula One racing has always been a bit mystifying. They do some weird stuff. What started out as a European racing circuit is now world wide. They race everywhere but Antarctica and the U.S. They screwed up the U.S. race at Indy over a tire issue and are not likely to return for some time.

The races themselves aren’t bad, although there is very little passing on most of the tracks. Qualifying and pit stops often dictate the winner. Speaking of the pit stops, they’re something to see. Like 40 guys over the wall, just to change 4 tires and gas up.

F1 has always played around with its rules a lot. Tires, engines, suspensions, all kinds of stuff. But, now they’ve topped themselves.

Last year, Lewis Hamilton won the points championship by one point, but won one less race than runnerup Felipe Massa. So, what does F1’s ruling body (FIA) do? Over-react doesn’t begin to describe this: The FIA ruled that in 2009 the driver with the most victories would be crowned the champion, points notwithstanding.

The team owners and drivers protested. So, what does the FIA do? It says OK, we won’t change it this year, but will wait until 2010. A bad idea now is still a bad idea next year. How does waiting a year help? It they’d said, “OK, we know a lot of people don’t like this new rule, so we’ll study it further.” But, no. “Just wait a year and we’re sure you’ll like it then.”

All racing bodies do strange things. NASCAR, NHRA, you name ’em. They all make decisions that sometimes leave you shaking your head. But, this is just plain dumb. It was dumb to change the rule in the first place, just because of the way last year’s champion was decided, but then to backtrack and put it off a year is even dumber.

How much you want to bet they change their minds a few more times before this is settled?

Formula 1 is a joke. The form of motorsport known as Formula 1 has more scrutiny and stupidity around it than Jay Cutler and Josh McDaniels combined! As we speak, the United States is planning to launch a Formula 1 team for the 2010 season and my only question is…WHY?! Formula 1 COMPLETELY shunned the United States a couple of years ago when they decided to not run at the “World Center of Racing” the Indianapolis Motor Speedway because they were called out regarding a tire debacle that eliminated HALF OF THE FIELD before the Green Flag dropped.

The sanctioning body of the Formula 1 Championship is ludicrous and they change the rules every single year to try and fix the sport when what they should be looking internally on their managment to make changes to the sport. Now they launch a new rule change for 2010 that will have the championship decided by race wins alone? So let me get this straight…If a guy wins seven races and crashes out of the other events of the year finishing in last place he is still the champion while his top title challenger wins only two races but never finishes outside the top-10 can’t be champion even though he would undoubtedly be leading the points? ARE YOU KIDDING ME!??! Consistency has to stand for something in the motorsports world. It’s what makes motorsports unique from everything else…you don’t HAVE to win the most to win the championship. It’s about making the best of what you have if your car isn’t hooked up on a given weekend…so instead of winning you take your top-15 finish and you go on to next week.

Three prime examples of why this rule is unneccesary. In 2008, Kyle Busch and Carl Edwards won a TON of races in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series and did not win the championship. Granted, this is probably due to NASCAR’s Chase format reshuffling the points for the final ten races of the season, but Kyle and Carl still got the advantage going into the Chase and the championship was exciting regardless. I do believe that some tweaking is needed to NASCAR’s Chase format because Jimmie Johnson, not to downplay his Record-Tying three straight titles, has figured out that all he needs to do is by in the top-12 come the chase and then turn on the afterburners.

The best examples of why this Formula 1 rule is ridiculous comes out of the Indy Racing League. The last three IndyCar Series Championships have come down to the final race of the season and have been separated by less than 15 points with one season, 2006, having the leader at the top of the points win the championship on a tiebreaker. In 2007, Dario Franchitti won the title over Scott Dixon in the last race and the driver with the most race wins wasn’t even a factor. Franchitti and Dixon finished the season with four wins apiece and Tony Kanaan had FIVE! In 2008, Scott Dixon won the championship by 13 points over Helio Castroneves of Team Penske. The remarkable thing about that statistic is Dixon had FIVE WINS in 2008 with Castroneves crossing the checkers first only twice! The IndyCar Series manages to have a close championship regardless of race wins. This is due to the fact that IndyCar racing is strictly a ‘FORMULAIC’ platform with all drivers/teams running on Dallara Chassis, Honda INDY V8s, and Firestone Firehawk tires. Maybe instead of changing the rules regarding the points…Formula 1 should tighten up their rules regarding development of the car and make it more of a spec series…maybe at that point F1 would be more competitive and a consistent, worthwhile product!

-B

Brett Musick

Ok,

Formula 1 is a joke. The form of motorsport known as Formula 1 has more scrutiny and stupidity around it than Jay Cutler and Josh McDaniels combined! As we speak, the United States is planning to launch a Formula 1 team for the 2010 season and my only question is…WHY?! Formula 1 COMPLETELY shunned the United States a couple of years ago when they decided to not run at the “World Center of Racing” the Indianapolis Motor Speedway because they were called out regarding a tire debacle that eliminated HALF OF THE FIELD before the Green Flag dropped.

The sanctioning body of the Formula 1 Championship is ludicrous and they change the rules every single year to try and fix the sport when what they should be looking internally on their managment to make changes to the sport. Now they launch a new rule change for 2010 that will have the championship decided by race wins alone? So let me get this straight…If a guy wins seven races and crashes out of the other events of the year finishing in last place he is still the champion while his top title challenger wins only two races but never finishes outside the top-10 can’t be champion even though he would undoubtedly be leading the points? ARE YOU KIDDING ME!??! Consistency has to stand for something in the motorsports world. It’s what makes motorsports unique from everything else…you don’t HAVE to win the most to win the championship. It’s about making the best of what you have if your car isn’t hooked up on a given weekend…so instead of winning you take your top-15 finish and you go on to next week.

Three prime examples of why this rule is unneccesary. In 2008, Kyle Busch and Carl Edwards won a TON of races in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series and did not win the championship. Granted, this is probably due to NASCAR’s Chase format reshuffling the points for the final ten races of the season, but Kyle and Carl still got the advantage going into the Chase and the championship was exciting regardless. I do believe that some tweaking is needed to NASCAR’s Chase format because Jimmie Johnson, not to downplay his Record-Tying three straight titles, has figured out that all he needs to do is by in the top-12 come the chase and then turn on the afterburners.

The best examples of why this Formula 1 rule is ridiculous comes out of the Indy Racing League. The last three IndyCar Series Championships have come down to the final race of the season and have been separated by less than 15 points with one season, 2006, having the leader at the top of the points win the championship on a tiebreaker. In 2007, Dario Franchitti won the title over Scott Dixon in the last race and the driver with the most race wins wasn’t even a factor. Franchitti and Dixon finished the season with four wins apiece and Tony Kanaan had FIVE! In 2008, Scott Dixon won the championship by 13 points over Helio Castroneves of Team Penske. The remarkable thing about that statistic is Dixon had FIVE WINS in 2008 with Castroneves crossing the checkers first only twice! The IndyCar Series manages to have a close championship regardless of race wins. This is due to the fact that IndyCar racing is strictly a ‘FORMULAIC’ platform with all drivers/teams running on Dallara Chassis, Honda INDY V8s, and Firestone Firehawk tires. Maybe instead of changing the rules regarding the points…Formula 1 should tighten up their rules regarding development of the car and make it more of a spec series…maybe at that point F1 would be more competitive and a consistent, worthwhile product!

-B

James Jorgon

I wouldn’t say F1 is a joke, but I will admit that it seriously lacks the kind of competition it needs to keep it interesting. In other words, when a Ferrari & McLaren have budgets in the 100’s of millions of dollars compared to the backmarker teams, it’s not too difficult to understand why they win nearly every single race. The announcers can crow about the “brilliance” of Lewis Hamilton or a Felipe Massa, but put either one of them into a Red Bull car, or a Super Aguri (or whatever the hell it’s called) and they’ll finish in 16th place most of the time. The cars are the stars in F1, not the drivers. The cars are totally cool, but the races themselves are usually dull as a butter knife.

James Jorgon

I wouldn’t say F1 is a joke, but I will admit that it seriously lacks the kind of competition it needs to keep it interesting. In other words, when a Ferrari & McLaren have budgets in the 100’s of millions of dollars compared to the backmarker teams, it’s not too difficult to understand why they win nearly every single race. The announcers can crow about the “brilliance” of Lewis Hamilton or a Felipe Massa, but put either one of them into a Red Bull car, or a Super Aguri (or whatever the hell it’s called) and they’ll finish in 16th place most of the time. The cars are the stars in F1, not the drivers. The cars are totally cool, but the races themselves are usually dull as a butter knife.